A tough quarter for Albany Molecular Research

The financial results Albany Molecular Research Inc. released Monday were actually a bit better than analysts had been expecting. The company lost 6 cents a share for the fourth quarter, beating estimates by a penny.

Nevertheless, the company had plenty of red ink: a $22.9 million non-cash goodwill impairment charge, a $2.0 million non-cash writedown of a deferred tax asset, and a $400,000 restructuring charge. Excluding those items, AMRI lost $1.9 million in the quarter. With them, its loss ballooned to $19.2 million.

A year earlier, AMRI reported earnings of $3.9 million for the fourth quarter.

For all of 2009, AMRI lost $298,000, compared to earnings of $19.8 million in 2008. Total revenue declined to $43.4 million in the fourth quarter from $56.4 million a year earlier. For the year, revenue also was down, to $196.4 million from $229.3 million a year earlier.